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Friday, February 1, 2013

Plotwalking

Welcome to Digressuary!

Digressuary 1 Submission: My New Superpower

So know how the weather's been full of suckage lately? I've had THREE days this week I had to walk a different route to work, two for fear of drowning (okay, so maybe it is more a fear of having wet socks all day) and one for the very near miss of falling on my hiney... Well on ALL THREE stuff was falling from the sky.

Now I don't melt. And snowfall means it's NOT cold enough for a bundled, walking person to actually FREEZE. And you know... I USED to think it was only a very high maintenance person indeed who grumbled about rain or snow. I used to LIKE THEM. But I've taken up a habit and they interfere.

And there is the constant fear of this, which I've experienced

NORMALLY I walk to work and read at the same time. SOMETIMES I walk along editing instead. Do you know what books and manuscripts are made out of? PAPER. Do you know what PAPER hates? GETTING WET! You know what INK hates? Being forced to bleed in tragic blue lines so they no longer hold their original meaning. So I no longer care for stuff falling from the sky. Not rain. Not snow. Not bird poo (were y'all around when the bird pooed on my MS? True story). Not even leaves, but mostly because they are an indicator Winter is coming and I HATE THE STARKS FOR THAT!

You can maybe see why books don't like water

So my latest editing project, WHAT ALES ME, a nearly cozy mystery centered around microbrewing and Portland, is in 'first edit'. First edit for me is 'the read' in preparation for 'big edit' but I can't seem to stop myself doing small edits on the way. First edit is something I can do as I walk (unlike big edit which requires a lot more writing and must therefore be done naked *cough*).

And I've been FRUSTRATED! I want to edit. I need to edit. And wet stuff is falling from the sky! BLUERG! Or is it BLEURG!? I get those two confused.

I'd like rain again if this would happen

But you know... two days in a row, as I walked in my grumbly non-editingness, my BRAIN engaged and I filled PLOT HOLES!!!! GAH! And by GAH I mean w00t w00t!

That is huge. Know why? Because I LOVE my character list, setting, set up... but the murder itself was missing a little UMPH. And I umphed it! TWICE!

I WIN!
*cough *

Seriously, though... I need to remember to just WALK now and then. At least if I have holes to fill.

I'm full of admiration that you can walk and edit at the same time. I do a lot of plotting whilst in the shower and while dog walking and cycling. I'll let you know if I graduate to editing at the same time. You can get special note paper to write on in the shower. That might work for rainy days :)

Congrats on umph-ing your murder! Crappy, nut-case weather aside, it must be cool to be able to walk to work. (I mean, in the summer time.) I get a lot of ideas when driving--and the problem with that is there's no way to write it down. While the logical thing would be to use some sort of device to record them, I feel stupid talking to myself in my car, so I just keep mulling it over until I can write it down. I only run the occasional red light...

Kitty-I worry with one of those hats I'd decapitate people I passed... this might stem from feeling a need to use MY OWN umbrella as a shield from people decapitating ME--Michiganders lack umbrella competence.

Alex, I think I have my route memorized--I only have trouble after a rain because there are branches that hang too low--THOSE I run into.

Jen-you think DRIVING and talking looks stupid--you should see the 'read out loud' phase of my walking and editing! But people already think I'm eccentric--totally meet people all the time who recognize me for it.

haha...great Game of Thrones reference!! I laughed when I saw that. God that's an awesome show!!

At any rate, hmmmm...I'd say all my writing superpowers come out when I'm half asleep--which is inevitably when I have my best ideas that I then forget upon waking. As superpowers go, it's kind of a lame one...I think yours is probably better. I need to go shopping at the superpower store for a new one...

I walk all the time so I can think about my novel. It's like a magic spell or something, especially for plot issues. I cannot imagine reading or editing while walking, though. I'd be one of those people you see on the gag reel falling on my face after stepping off a bridge or something. :)

I never walk to work, but this week made it difficult even to drive there! Monday - late start due to rain/ice. Tuesday - no school due to LOTS of rain/ice. Wednesday - cold and windy, yuck. Thursday - very cold and windy, double yuck. Friday - 27 below zero. I don't even know what to say about that.erica

I am "Sleep-Deprived". That is my super-hero name. Fueled by caffeine in any form, I am able to shake off my arch enemy Narcolepse, who clutches at my ankles, trying to drag me down into the bowels of deepest darkest night...What? Where was I? Was I saying something?Oh yes. Ahem. I can go forego sleep and emerge at the end of a fourteen hour day ready to sit down at the computer and write some quality, heroic prose, yessiree...(yawn). What was I saying? What tense was I in?

The Naked Tart

I write books from my bathtub and blog in my basement. For a full bio on the 3 faces of me, check out the tab. As for the shenanigans around here... Confessions of a Watery Tart is my primary blog. It has lots on writing, some life... mostly I just want to encourage you to play with me. Silliness abounds. I also have a Song of Ice and Fire Blog because frankly I'm obsessed and have tons of theories and ideas, so I decided to give myself a place to channel those besides brief facebook comments.
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